The River Torridge Fishery Association
President: Lord Clinton
Chairman: Paul Ashworth Secretary: Charles Inniss
Beeches Sheepwash Beaworthy Devon EX21 5NW
tel: 014109231237
e-mail: [email protected]
NEWSREEL: SPRING 2022
Subscriptions for 2022 are now due. Please forward your cheque for £20 to the Secretary at the above address making cheques payable to The River Torridge Fishery Association.
If you prefer to pay by BACS:
account name: Torridge Owners Association: a/c no 00827770: sort code 51 70 16
Our AGM: for the first time for three years we were able to hold our agm. It was an excellent meeting with over 30 attending and The Half Moon laid on a superb buffet at the conclusion of the business. Paul Carter was our Fishery Officer for over thirty years before his retirement in 2020. In appreciation for all Paul has done for our river the Chairman presented him with a retirement gift from the Association: a £100 Snowbee gift voucher.
Election of Officers: the agm re-elected the officers and committee “en bloc”.
Chairman: Paul Ashworth, Vice-Chairman Steve Phelps, Sec/Treas Charles Inniss, T. Harper,
J. Burden, S. McClaren, D. Betts, D. Williams, P. Coles, K. Dunn, J. Graham. T. Birkbeck
Our President, Lord Clinton, is an honorary member of the committtee.
Hatchery Update: having not allowed the hatchery team to trap broodstock from the fish pass at Monkokehampton Weir last year for health and safety reasons, your committee is hopeful that the EA will give us the go-ahead this autumn. The Association continues to support the South West Rivers Association with its ambition to use the hatchery at Colliford Reservoir as a hatchery hub for all the rivers in the South West.
Health and safety issues: at the agm our vice-Chairman, Steve Phelps, outlined how important it was for the Association to make a thorough risk assessment for any work undertaken with regard to the hatchery and to general river maintenance.
EA proposal for 100% salmon catch and release: this will apply to all the rivers in Devon and Cornwall. Salmon stocks in all the South West rivers continue to decline and the EA feel it necessary to make catch and release compulsory. There will be a consultation period when we will all have an opportunity to express our views. Mandatory catch and release will probably be implemented for the 2023 season. There was a lively discussion at the agm with opinions evenly split for and against. With Torridge stocks of salmon and sea trout continuing to decline your committee strongly recommends that all fish are released without where possible removing them from the water.
The season so far: the river was high and coloured for the first ten days of March but then settled down to provide some excellent early season salmon fishing. It has been a most encouraging month with 5 salmon caught so far: 2 from Beam and 3 from Madeira, including a superb fish of 15lb.
Callum Underhill: our new fishery officer, Callum, will be looking forward to seeing many of you on the river bank over the coming season.
